British shares drift lower as Royal Mail falls

* FTSE 100 down 0.5 pct

* New (KOSDAQ: 160550.KQ - news) signs of Chinese economic weakness impact miners

* Royal Mail (LSE: RMG.L - news) hit by JP Morgan downgrade

* RBC (Other OTC: RBCI - news) upgrade lifts M&S

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Britain's top equity index

drifted lower on Tuesday as concerns about Greece and China kept

investors on edge, while a broker downgrade hit Royal Mail

.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index fell 0.5 percent to

6,802.63 points in early trading, cutting its gains for 2015 to

around 4 percent.

Royal Mail declined by 3.1 percent - the worst performing

FTSE stock in percentage terms - after investment bank JP Morgan

cut its rating to "neutral" from "overweight".

Fresh signs of economic weakness in China, the world's

biggest consumer of metals, hit miners, with the FTSE 350 Mining

Index slipping 0.5 percent.

Data on Tuesday showed that China's annual inflation hit a

five-year low in January while factory deflation worsened.

Supermarket retailer Marks & Spencer (Other OTC: MAKSF - news) rose 2.1

percent after brokerage RBC upgraded the stock to "outperform"

from "sector perform".

Traders also pointed to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine

between government forces and pro-Moscow separatists, and

Greece's standoff with its international creditors over seeking

a new debt agreement, as weighing on stock markets.

"It's difficult to be positive about the markets at the

moment, with the situation in Ukraine, Greece and China. I think

we'll be on the back foot in the near term," said Berkeley

Futures' associate director Richard Griffiths.

The FTSE 100 reached a peak last year of 6,904.86 points,

its highest since early 2000, before losing ground towards the

end of 2014.

(editing by John Stonestreet)